The Internship
by jootsgarland
Summary: AU. 16-year old Ash Ketchum wins a place as an intern at Cerulean's Pokemon Gym. Excited to learn more than he ever has before, he can't understand why the gyms leader, Misty, is not so enthusiastic about the whole thing.
1. Chapter 1: The Unlucky Winner Is:

**AU. 16-year old Ash Ketchum wins a place as an intern at Cerulean's Pokemon Gym. Excited to learn more than he ever has before, he can't understand why the gyms leader, Misty, is not so enthusiastic about the whole thing.**

 **Ash/Misty AAML**

 **Rating: T (Possible M later)**

 **Ages:**

 **Ash: 16**

 **Misty: 17**

 **Brock: 22**

* * *

You heard that right. Out of hundreds of applicants, hundreds of voicemails and stake outs, Ash Ketchum from Pallet town, this is your lucky day! You have just won an internship at a regional gym! Ring this numbe-

"YEEEAAH."

"Yes! I can't believe it! I won!" Ash Ketchum jumped up from where he'd been huddled in front of his television, his fist flying into the air. His yell had awoken Pikachu his little electric Pokémon, who had been dozing lightly.

"Look Pikachu!" The young trainer exclaimed, pointing at the small television screen. Pikachu joined in his trainers' excitement, jumping up and exclaiming various things in his own language Ash seemed to understand.

He smashed in the numbers on his phone, "Yes. Yes this is Ash. Thank you so much, I'll get packing right away." He let the phone slide from his fingers onto the bed covers and lay face down on his bed, too excited to do anything else. Finally, he decided it best he moved to start packing his bag for the long trip to Cerulean city.

It would have been different had he been ten. The year he first got his Pokémon license, he'd been too late to claim a Pokemon from Professor Oak, and had to face the devastating fact that he wouldn't be starting his Pokemon journey that year. His mom had forced him back to school, and he had buckled down in his studies for the past six years until he graduated.

It wasn't as though he hadn't met with any surprises during the last few years; he'd met his friend Pikachu in a forest after saving him from a flock of Spearow. He'd also managed to capture a Charmander, which had now evolved into a Charizard, a Squirtle and Balbasaur.

The next morning Ash bid farewell to his mom, who in her usual fashion had found many additions to add to his overflowing bag of supplies and necessities. After assuring her he would make sure to stay safe and keep in touch, he made a video call to professor Oak, wanting to inform him of his journey before he left home.

"Cerulean city hm? very nice city I must say. You will keep me informed of any new Pokémon you come across won't you?"

"Of course I will, and when I beat the sorry gym leader at Cerulean's gym, I'll gain my first badge while I'm at it!"

The older man spoke on hurriedly, his voice timid, "Ah yes, Ash I wanted to speak with you about tha -"

"Even Gary hasn't had experience of being part of a real gym!" Ash continued, his eyes gleaming.

"Yes that is true," The professor confirmed. "I think this will be a great step for you Ash. I wish you the best of luck."

Ash nodded, "Thank you professor Oak," he said, switching the video screen off and putting the phone back into the receiver.

With Pikachu at his side, Ash set out on the road. He decided to take his motorbike, thus cutting down his journey so he would arrive at Cerulean by the late evening.

"Bye Ash hunny! Be responsible like I know you will!" His mom called.

Ash rammed the helmet on his head to hide the flush of embarrassment on his face. Pikachu sat at the front it's back to his chest, wearing it's small protective helmet and visor.

"Bye mom! See you soon!" He revved up the engine and sped off through town, the fresh air whipping past him as he sped on to his destination.

...

The city was bustle of people that Ash was not used to in his sleepy home town. He looked up at the tall buildings that towered over him and blew out a breath. This would be his home for the next four weeks. Just as he made it over the hill the dome shaped building that belonged to Cerulean's only gym came into view.

Ash was awe, though it was very impressive and he'd seen it on television and in magazines, he couldn't believe he was actually here, witnessing all the battles and training his Pokémon.

"Ready Pikachu?"

"Pika." Pikachu nodded, it's tiny paws raised.

Ash walked up the doors and gave them a heave with his hands until they swung open. It was quiet now that it was late at night, and all of the lights in the arena had been dimmed.

Suddenly the doors behind him slammed shut.

"Huh -"

"You there!" Shouted a female voice in the darkness, though it didn't sound threatening.

The lights flickered back to life and Ash squinted,

"We were just about to lock up." A different woman's said.

There stood three girls, each in short dresses and long hair that flowed around their shoulders.

"Welcome to the Cerulean city gym." The blonde announced, "I'm Daisy,"

"I'm Lily." Chimed a girl with pink hair.

"And I'm Violet." A blue haired girl finished, flashing him a peace sign.

"Nice to meet you. I came here for –"

"Oh look! A Pikachu!" The girls squealed in unison.

"Pikachu!" The mouse like Pokemon replied, twitching its ears.

"Yep! Me and Pikachu have been best buds ever since I found him, he likes meeting new people." Ash laughed, watching as Pikachu enjoyed getting it's ears scratched and it's stomach tickled. The girls continued to coo over the electric Pokemon, until had to clear his throat.

"So anyway, I came here for the internship. I'm Ash, I won the competition advertised on television." He stated proudly.

The three sisters looked at each other. "Oh we know who _you_ are. You're that kid from Pallet." Daisy eyed him appreciatively. "Though a kid no longer I see."

"Oh well we don't, like, take care of the internship scheme here. We put some ideas out there and set it up but like, actually doing the whole thing sounds totally exhausting." Violet flippantly said, twirling a strand of her blue hair.

"O-ok, so there's no actual trainer here at all?" Ash said, not bothering to hide the disappointment in his voice. His shoulders sagging, just when he thought he'd hit a stoke of luck.

"Of course there is! there's our little sister. She helped set up the internships but she actually like, wants to help trainers become better with their Pokémon." Lily said, "She's not like, a qualified trainer or anything but she did help the last two that come through here, and she's pretty good at battling I suppose…"

She finished, putting a finger to her lip in thought - then -

"Hey you seem to be the crazy type about entering the Pokémon league, well so is Misty! I know you'd totally be her type, you should totally go talk with her!"

Ash blanched, not really sure what the three sisters were trying to push on to him. A part of him felt cheated out of a wealth of knowledge he could be learning right now, but then he was also intrigued about this other sister who supposedly good at gym battle.

"Well I s'pose… is she any good?" He challenged.

"Duh, she's better than any of us, and that's saying something." Daisy quipped, hands on hips.

"Alright, where can I find her?" Ash asked.

"She's in one of the back rooms, you know like, the grimy and icky type room where we keep all our gym paperwork." Violet replied, shuddering.

"I hope you stick around Ash, we love seeing new people at our gym." Daisy said flirtatiously.

"And you will come to one of our shows, right Ash?" Violet winked.

Ash's hand automatically found the back of his head, not sure what to make of all this attention. "Uh sure…"

"Oh and Ash while your here, you can have one of the suites. They're meant to be for patrons only but we'll make an exception." Lily said sweetly, handing him a large bronze key.

"Hey thanks!" He'd been worried he'd have to kip in a doorway tonight if he hadn't sorted out somewhere to stay.

Cerulean gym was like maze, it's many corridors twisting and turning and leading from one part of the gym to another. Ash gaped as he arrived at what appeared to be an indoor aquarium, complete with tropical fish and even some water Pokémon.

 _What a life!_ Ash marveled, his nose practically against the glass.

"Pika pi! Pikachu exclaimed, following the travels of a particular large fish with his nose.

He and Pikachu followed the directions the three sisters had given him, taking a right onto a small corridor with one room, the door to which was slightly ajar, and Ash could hear the rustling of paper on the other side of the door which immediately informed him the room was occupied, nonetheless Ash wondered if he should knock first.

"Who is it?" Came a young woman's voice.

"Um hey…" Ash trailed off, at once thrown that there seemed to be no one in the room.

"Up here!" Came the voice again, this time from the far corner of the room.

Ash blinked and sure enough, a young girl was standing precariously on a step-ladder, both of her arms full with books. She was looking at him curiously over the top of her book pile.

"Oh here, let me help –" Ash said, scrabbling to reach for her books.

"No I'm alright I –" As soon as she uttered those words she began to loose her footing, she threw out her arms to stop herself from falling and ended up accidentally hitting Ash on the head with several books in the process. Ash yelped, one hand feeling for the lump on his head and one holding the girl's waist to prevent her from falling.

With most of the books now scattered across the floor, the girl threw the last few on the floor, looking slightly annoyed and a little embarrassed.

For the lack of anything to say that could help the situation, Ash blurted,

"Hi, I'm Ash. Ash Ketchum for Pallet." He flashed her his signature grin.

The girl's annoyed look faded until she couldn't help but smile.

"I'm Misty. Misty Waterflower."

* * *

 **AN/ Not quite what Ash had been expecting right? I do love to make him suffer, but hopefully not too much! As you can see, I bumped up Ash's age and the circumstances in which he obtained his first Pokemon has changed. But hey, it's a AU in a different timeline.**


	2. Misty, Cerulean Gym Leader

_"Hi, I'm Ash. Ash Ketchum from Pallet." He flashed her his signature grin._

 _The girl's annoyed look faded until she couldn't help but smile._

 _"I'm Misty. Misty Waterflower."_

 **Misty, Cerulean Gym Leader**

She definitely lived up to the Waterflower image, albeit in a different way to that of her sisters. Misty had eyes worthy of the gym name she lead; a pallet of blue and turquoise green. Her pale porcelain skin was framed by bright blazing red head hair that fell just past her shoulders. As she moved to sit behind the desk, Ash could see that she wore a simple blue and white trimmed swimming dress, embroidered with the logo of the Cerulean gym and their cascade badge. Misty filtered through the stream of papers on her desk until one of them caught her attention, tapping a pencil against the surface of the desk as her eyes scanned over the details on the paper.

"You're the new intern from Pallet?" Misty chewed the tip of the pencil in her mouth and for a moment Ash forgot her question might require an answer as he could only zero in on Misty's lips.

"Uh...yeah." Ash replied absently, hand behind his head and trying his hardest not to look like he had been staring.

Misty lifted her eyes from the paper to look over in surprise at the Pokemon trainer. "Huh. Thought you'd be -"

"- Less ruggedly handsome?" Ash suggested cheekily.

"Taller." Misty quipped, laughing as the raven haired teen almost fell sideways.

"Hey!" Ash said, affronted. Looking at her now, Ash noticed this girl couldn't be much older than himself. She wasn't that much taller... 'Well perhaps a little, maybe just a smidgen', he admitted grudgingly.

"Oh! is that your Pikachu?!" Misty squealed, her eyes gleaming as she noticed the small yellow mouse pokemon.

"Yup! Sure is, just be careful, he's sometimes not so good around - " before Ash could get the words out, Pikachu had jumped up into Misty's arms without hesitation, content to have it's head scratched. "- strangers." Ash cocked his head to the side. "Huh. Hey Misty it's like you and Pikachu have been buddies for the longest of times." He shook his head in disbelief, Misty laughed as she gave Pikachu a tickle behind it's ear.

"So is it just you doing all of this stuff by yourself?" Ash asked, gesturing around the simple grey room. There were no windows in the little box room, and he couldn't help noticing that it was drab and dull compared to the rest of the building.

Misty nodded, "My sisters take care of the... Promotional "Well I do a pretty good job at running this place. The best that you can do is enjoy your time at a professional gym and I think you will end up learning a lot from me." She gave him a wink, and at this and Ash's eyes snapped back up to meet hers. He immediately folded his arms, ignoring the heat rising to his cheeks.

"Hold on just a minute. I think you have some explaining to do."

Misty looked a little taken aback by the accusation but did nothing to indicate she would interrupt him. Instead she raised a brow and folded her arms in kind. "What do you mean?"

"I was promised a four week Pokemon training course with a professional trainer," Ash wagged his finger, "That was what the advertisement promised!"

Misty shrugged. "We put this intern opportunity out to everyone who wants basic gym experience. We put this program together, we make it sound fancy to gain some interest and we get funded by the pokemon league." She explained nonchalantly, as though lecturing him on something that should be quite obvious.

Ash's brows furrowed in annoyance. "But that's deceiving! Your sisters are conning people out of their money!"

"I know that!" Misty said, exasperated. "I know exactly what they're doing, doesn't mean I have to agree with it."

"Well seems like a cheap way of cutting corners to earn money to me." Ash replied, scowling.

"Yeah, well... Fortunately I'm a lady who can't be bought." Misty huffed.

"Now that I find difficult to believe ." Ash murmured. He bit the inside of his cheek in attempt to swallow the dying words on his tongue.

The color rose to Misty's cheeks as her temper flared, "Fine." She snapped. "Well if you see it that way then - then you might as well just leave right now!" She said, her voice rising to a crescendo.

"Gladly!" Ash yelled back, stomping out of the room.

Ash found his way back to the lobby, Pikachu following meekly behind him. He looked over to see a lone phone booth sat glowing in the corner of what looked to be the lounge area. He had half the mind to make the the call right now and tell his mother to expect him back home by noon. He would have to tell professor Oak that the internship wasn't worth it, that he couldn't hack it. He slumped down in the chair in front of the tiny screen and placed the phone up to his ear, listening to the dull ring of the dial tone.

"Pikapi..." Pikachu commented sadly, looking at him with what could only be described as one akin to disappointment.

"I'm the one being unreasonable?!" The trainer sighed, taking his cap off to run a hand through his wild hair. Ash thought back to how quick Misty's temper had flared, he had never encountered anyone who's temperament changed so quickly.

When he thought about it, perhaps he had acted a little harshly. He had whined so much about the opportunities he thought he didn't have, he hadn't really been interested in what Misty had to say. Ash mulled it over in his mind and begrudgingly put the phone back down in it's receiver. At length, he shuffled back to the little storage room, unsure of what he would find when he returned.

Misty had collected all of the sheets of paper and books and had arranged them into little piles. She did not look up as he came in, so Ash was startled when she suddenly spoke first.

"Thought you were leaving."

Her voice sounded deflated and Ash felt his guilt solidify. He was sure her tone had not meant to accusatory, but in the small room the words seemed to snap at him.

"Well I sorta can't, it's the middle of the night y'know." He finished lamely. It was a lousy excuse at best but it worked.

"S'pose not." She said quietly, her voice didn't bear a hard edge anymore, she just seemed tired.

Ash felt the apology bubble to the surface, ready to blurt out at any given time. He didn't come here to fight, he came here to learn to be the best he could be.

"Listen, I'm... Earlier could of gone better." The words flowing much easier than he anticipated.

Misty looked up at him sharply, her eyes fixing him with such as glare that Ash found himself blurting out the words before he scramble a simple sentence.

"Sorry."

Misty looked at him, her mouth upturned into a small smile. "That's alright Ash. I understand. Would you like to learn more about what to expect here?"

Ash blinked, sure that her look of dejection had vanished in under a second. He decided to take advantage of her good mood and nodded.

"The internship program lasts for approximately four weeks, during that time you will become a member of the gym, giving you and your pokemon perks such as free roam of our facilities. You do not have the experience to give gym badges to Pokemon trainers but you can oversee gym battles."

"Well then who gives out the gym badges?" Ash asked, curious. He had not really come across an authoritative leader of the gym yet, and he wondered who it could be.

Misty jerked her thumb back, "I do. I don't just do the paperwork y'know. I'm a trainer too." She stated proudly.

Ash's eyes bugged, "You're the Cerulean gym leader?!"

"Don't act so surprised." She quipped smugly."

"Maybe tomorrow, so you have time to sleep on it and come to your senses." At this Ash stuck out his tongue and Misty blushed lightly.

"Well, I'm beat, I'm gonna turn in for the night." Ash said, appearing not to notice the red heads state. "Uh, do you know where the bedrooms are?" He asked sheepishly. "I have a feeling I'm gonna get lost around here."

Misty quickly shook herself "You're not on the street, are you?"

"Well no, you're sisters set me up with a room."

This caught the redheads attention, "My sisters gave you a key to the dorms?" She asked incredulously. Ash nodded, taking out the sleek silver key Daisy gave him to show to her.

Misty smiled at that, "I'll take you to the rooms, this gym is kind of big to someone who's not used to it, I suppose."

"Do you stay in the gym overnight?" Ash asked, genuinely curious.

"Sometimes if we work late or have to be at the gym early in the morning," She replied. "We have our own rooms in the gym here just in case."

They came to a stop outside a handsome mahogany door on the third floor. Ash used the key in the lock and turned the handle, gasping at the room inside. The room was dome shaped with a high ceiling, painted in different shades of blue. It was well furnished with an impressive four poster bed, en suite and television.

"There's no need to be up early tomorrow, I have to open the gym so you might wanna fix yourself something to eat." Misty explained when Ash had a good look around. He nodded,

"Pika!" Pikachu said, waving.

Misty laughed, "Good night to you to, Pikachu! 'Night, Ash."

"'Night, Misty."

* * *

Ash fell back against the bed covers, his fingers flexing against the soft satin material. Utterly exhausted, he couldn't even muster the energy to take off any of his clothes save for his shoes. The silence of the room was soothing and just as sleep finally claimed him his mind wandered back to a certain fiery red head, and thoughts of her continued to dance in front of his eyes.

Down the hall, Misty's turmoil were on a similar train of thought. The youngest gym leader wrapped her arms around herself tightly, the nerves getting the better of her and her mind conflicted. She would tell her sisters she couldn't go through with the plan. It put everything she knew at risk, but in her mind anything was definitely better than the other way.

"Listen... I don't think I can go through with this." She said uneasily. As she expected, all three heads whipped in her direction.

"Misty!" They all whined in unison.

"He's coming next week." Violet stated, "And if we don't have what he wants we're all like, gonna be in so much trouble." Everyone's faces turned grim at that, and for an outsider who would see the Sensational Sisters as anything but the three beaming beauties it would have looked odd.

"You can't do this to us because you like, fancy the guy, Misty." Lily said, rolling her eyes.

Misty almost growled at the audacity, "That's not it!" she cried, exasperated. But her feelings changed when the image of the pokemon trainer with the disarming smile and warm brown eyes flooded her mind.

"You like, barely know him. Don't worry, he'll be out of your stringy hair by the end of the week!" Lily exclaimed, clapping her hands in joy.

Misty pointedly decided to ignore the dig, "And if I refuse?"

The three sisters looked at each other curiously, and under the silent scrutiny Misty felt like she'd missed a step going downstairs.

At last Daisy spoke up, "Mist... You like, barely know him." And for once, there was no condescending tone in the eldest sisters voice. She sounded almost regretful.

Misty's mind seemed flooded with self doubt. It was silly, wasn't it? To develop some sort of protectiveness over someone you just met? And he infuriated her, oh arceus did he annoy her.

She nodded slowly. "You're right. What was I thinking!"

All the sisters nodded in agreement, seemingly appeased that their youngest sister wasn't mixing infatuation with business. After telling her sisters to go on without her as she would lock up for the night, Misty thought about the subject of their conversation sleeping soundly several floors above. Tomorrow, she would have to face more battles than one.

She cursed her heart for stuttering at the sight of him. Whomever she had expected, it hadn't been him. It hadn't been Ash!

 **AN/ Apologies for the slight delay in getting the next installment. Thank you for all your lovely reviews so far, seriously if no one reviewed I would never have had the spirit to carry this story on, it's very uplifting.**

 **The plot thickens, who this mysterious figure who has control over the Waterflower sisters' lives? What has it got to do with Ash?**


End file.
